Salvador Dalí

‘If you want to interest people, you have to provoke them.’ (Salvador Dalí)

Salvador Dalí was a Spanish painter, graphic artist, writer, sculptor and stage designer. He is considered an icon of surrealism and a master of self-promotion. He played with taboos and loved to provoke and shock – both in his life and in his art, which is full of metaphors and enigmatic symbols. He did not complete his art studies in Madrid at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando after various protests, a scandal with the teaching staff and his refusal to take the theoretical exam. In 1926, Dalí travelled to Paris for the first time, where he met Pablo Picasso and Jean-François Millet. He visited the Louvre, Versailles and the Café de la Rotonde. In 1929, he returned to Paris. Together with Luis Buñuel, he wrote the screenplay for ‘An Andalusian Dog’ (Un Chien Andalou) and, with the support of Joan Miró, was accepted into the circle of surrealists around André Breton, with whom he later fell out. There he also met his future wife, muse and manager, Gala. By 1936 at the latest, Dalí was an international superstar of the art scene with numerous exhibitions in Europe and the USA. In 1938, he met the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud in person in London, whose writings had fascinated and inspired him for years. Freud's psychoanalysis and dream interpretation are an important key to understanding Dalí's works. His old master-like, almost photorealistic paintings spring from the subconscious and unconscious, depicting dreams, fears, fantasies, intoxicating states and sexual obsessions. In addition to Freud, Marcel Duchamp had a particularly strong influence on his work. Today, Dalí's works can be found in major museums around the world, and his imaginative oeuvre fascinates viewers with its outstanding technique and mysterious motifs.